Cycling’s veterans have had the lion’s share of successes in Tour of Taihu Lake thus far, so it was time for a change in the form of Nutrixxion Abus’ Sebastian Körber winning his first UCI stage. The 28-year old second-year pro was put out of contention by yesterday’s en masse crash but everything fell together in the right way today.

Immediately after the too-close-to-call stage finish Körber, who hails from Nürnberg – from 2005 to 2009, home to the UCI1.1-ranked ‘Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt‘ which is now sanctioned as part of the German Cycling Federation’s national series – had resigned himself to second place behind Joeri Stallaert (Landbouwkrediet – Euphony) but photographic evidence of his victory saw him elevated in rank and spirit.

On GC, Milan Kadlec continued to defy the insistence of close rivals, maintaining his 9″ advantage over Drapac’s Floris Goesinnen, whilst all other classification leaders also held – or marginally increased, in the case of points leader Alois Kankovsy (ASC Dukla Praha) – their positions. Only two stages and 250 kilometres of racing now stands between the Czech Republic’s Kadlec and his first stage race win since 1999.

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